Transmit data serially without a Microcontroller. Uses a specialized IC by Holtek to transmit and receive, but really quite useful if you have some data you want to move and don’t feel like adding a Microcontroller to your project!

All too many times we end up creating a tool out of necessity. Joonas was looking for a simple way to decode PS/2 keyboard data for another project. So he decided to build a simple logic analyzer that would let him inspect the signals.

The build uses a ATTiny2313 microcontroller, connected to a FTDI USB-to-UART adapter. On the software side it’s real simple, open up a serial port and capture the serial data. The data can then be plotted in OpenSniffer and visualized graphically. One of the downsides to this project is the data rate is pretty low which is estimated at sub 100khz.

A quick acetone vapor bath rig made from goodwill parts. Image tutorial here. The end results didn’t turn out that good, but I have faith in the process. Tutorial is brief but you can get the idea.

Build a mini USB powered soldering fume extractor. Steps here. Can also be used as a personal cooling agent when you get really hot. Good to have with that USB soldering iron.

OpenWRT support has been added for the Raspberry Pi. Source repo here. Might end up being a quality distro for turning your Pi into a router. OpenWRT is pretty well established, I appreciate they already made the decision not to include XBMC in it.

Looking to make battery powered devices ? Then you should probably learn more about batteries. Calculating Amp Hours, Capacity testing, etc.

You have probably seen those little dongles that let people swipe their credit card on their smart phone or tablet. These little dongles transmit data to the device via the microphone jack. The audio recorded is then examined and the data is either a one or a zero.

In the example described by the article, they are using a PIC and the data is encoded via manchester encoding. A resistor and a pot are used to tweak the output level. This is a great way to send data to a smart phone or tablet without making any crazy custom dongles but you are limited in capabilities.

Need an easy way to have your Arduino talk to your Raspberry PI? Oscar has you covered. The naturally obvious solution is just to run the USB serial from the Arduino to the Raspberry PI’s USB host. Add a quick arduino sketch, some python using pyserial and you’re in business.

If you’ve modded your Raspberry PI’s power supply and have a decent power output on your ports, you can just run the Arduino from the PI.

Should only take you a few minutes to get this up and running. Check it out.